Veiva

So I'm working on the API and editor for what I call a 'GameDB' for my game. It's called IttleScape so I'm sure you can imagine what the gameplay would be like: RuneScape but single-player and a lot smaller (tops out at level 50). I've been working on how to model relationships. For things like crafting items, it's easy--you have inputs (e.g., 5 rune bars) which are consumed, requirements (e.g., level 99 smithing) which are not consumed, and outputs (e.g., a rune platebody and some smithing xp) which are given after the action. But for things like quests and shops that's a bit harder. For quests, I broke it into the overall "Quest" and invididual "Quest Steps". A single quest step can have multiple solutions, and each solution has prerequisites (other steps). When you complete a quest step, you would gain a pseudo-resource representing the specific step. So take the Cook's Assistant: You talk to the Chef (first step), you collect the ingredients in any order (steps 2-4), and you give the ingredients to the Chef (step 5). Step 5 has a single solution: steps 2-4. Step 1 has no solution. Steps 2-4 have a solution of step 1. So I modeled it in code: QuestStepResource startQuest = new QuestStepResource(game); startQuest.Create(); startQuest.Name = "Start Cook's Assistant"; QuestStepResource getEggStep = new QuestStepResource(game); getEggStep.Create(); getEggStep.Name = "(Cook's Assistant) Get large egg"; getEggStep.AddSolution(startQuest); QuestStepResource getFlourStep = new QuestStepResource(game); getFlourStep.Create(); getFlourStep.Name = "(Cook's Assistant) Get finely milled flour"; getFlourStep.AddSolution(startQuest); QuestStepResource getMilkStep = new QuestStepResource(game); getMilkStep.Create(); getMilkStep.Name = "(Cook's Assistant) Get prized milk"; getMilkStep.AddSolution(startQuest); QuestStepResource finalStep = new QuestStepResource(game); finalStep.Create(); finalStep.Name = "(Cook's Assistant) Make cake"; finalStep.AddSolution(getEggStep, getFlourStep, getMilkStep); QuestResource cooksAssistantQuest = new QuestResource(game); cooksAssistantQuest.Create(); cooksAssistantQuest.Name = "Cook's Assistant"; cooksAssistantQuest.SetFinalStep(finalStep); It produces this output (should give an idea to the layout of the DB if you're familiar with that sort of thing): 'Start Cook's Assistant' (#1, quest_step) '(Cook's Assistant) Get large egg' (#2, quest_step) - quest.complete * output '(Cook's Assistant) Get large egg' (#2, quest_step) x1 * require 'Start Cook's Assistant' (#1, quest_step) x1 '(Cook's Assistant) Get finely milled flour' (#3, quest_step) - quest.complete * output '(Cook's Assistant) Get finely milled flour' (#3, quest_step) x1 * require 'Start Cook's Assistant' (#1, quest_step) x1 '(Cook's Assistant) Get prized milk' (#4, quest_step) - quest.complete * output '(Cook's Assistant) Get prized milk' (#4, quest_step) x1 * require 'Start Cook's Assistant' (#1, quest_step) x1 '(Cook's Assistant) Make cake' (#5, quest_step) - quest.complete * output '(Cook's Assistant) Make cake' (#5, quest_step) x1 * require '(Cook's Assistant) Get large egg' (#2, quest_step) x1 * require '(Cook's Assistant) Get finely milled flour' (#3, quest_step) x1 * require '(Cook's Assistant) Get prized milk' (#4, quest_step) x1 'Cook's Assistant' (#6, quest) - quest.complete * output 'Cook's Assistant' (#6, quest) x1 * require '(Cook's Assistant) Make cake' (#5, quest_step) x1 For a branching quest (say something simple like Kill Jane or Kill John -> Quest Complete), you'd have two solutions to the final step (one with Kill Jane as a requirement and the other one with Kill John). Exclusionary logic will have to be handled in-game (e.g., can't kill John and Jane), but the goal planner only finds a single solution so it won't attempt both.

Yeah I've talked with some of the teachers in the Computer Programming / IT / etc programs and they're going to pass out the flier and mention the club in class.

Does this look good? I'm trying to get more people to join the Game Developer Club at school. It was just me who showed up last...

I definitely appreciate it, and I have been taking advice (e.g., aloof [that's not the right word] picture, eliminating things from bio, more casual photo [still need to get one]), but there's some things I just disagree on (fashion, and in this case camera angle). I apologize if I sound dismissive. I don't intend to! At the end of the day I'm the one whose never even been on a date so my opinions are a bit naive :P.

They're black chinos... And chukkas are ugly... And I like the angle. If it doesn't work I'll change it but the feedback I've gotten IRL has been only positive '-'.

The level ones are too... rigid. Or do you mean the photo being slightly tilted? Is this better? [hide] [/hide]

You'll never guess my Reddit account username. You know because it's definitely not veiva... Definitely not... I'm more creative than that... ...

Bump I got an "aloof" picture. [hide] [/hide] I think it's pretty good.

Yes, I'm learning automatic. I released my goal planner/route finder/game relation database library (I call it Discworld): https://github.com/aaronbolyard/Discworld There's Twoflower, which could work with any RPG with relationships that can described as a graph, and Mapp, which is a more specialized library designed for "RuneScape-like" games. I used Discworld in my secret project, and am going to use it in the game I'm making. This, for example, creates an item, "Amulet of Yendor", and adds 10 of it to the shop "Amulet Shoppe": twoflower::Brochure brochure; mapp::Game game(brochure); mapp::ItemDefinition item_definition; item_definition.name = "Amulet of Yendor"; auto item = game.add(item_definition); mapp::ShopDefinition shop_definition; shop_definition.name = "Amulet Shoppe"; auto shop = game.add(shop_definition); game.add(shop, item, 10);Cool thing is it creates a "shop_inventory" item so the goal planner won't buy more than what a shop carries. The planner initial state would have 10 shop_inventory, and every time it buys one from the shop, the shop_inventory goes down. Since you can't own negative of something in the planner, it automatically will stop buying from the store and try other options after 10 purchases! Once it outsmarted me and bought -100000 (or so) things from a shop to make money. :) I wish. Given enough data, it can come to arbitrary complex solutions. If you do things like weight cost of actions by personality, it can also give completely different solutions optimized for specific personalities. For example, if you weight combat, the plan will favor gathering resources from monsters instead of gathering them normally before certain thresholds. It's really neat.

Ok I think this came out better than I'd hoped. This is pretty good too: Had a driving lesson today. Getting better at steering and accelerating, woo.

abominable open-source 3D content creation program*

So to be clear: 1) Cut off the beginning and ending of of the bio. 2) Get a casual photo. 3) Use photo 1. 4) Put the line "Mouth to mouth is technically ass to mouth." (I joke). I'll cut off the excerpt from Lovesong but I'm keeping the beginning line (at least for now). May get a more casual photo, but I never dress like that so that's not exactly representative of me... Thinking for hobbies I could add something like: I want dates so I'm not going to mention I'm bi. I don't want girls thinking I'm gay and guys thinking I'm straight :P. Are you more attracted to women or men? Romantically, I lean slightly towards women. Sexually, it's definitely towards men.

Since I'm bi, some of the advice for straight guys is relevant. :P I still don't like the smug/arrogant thing. It's just not me.

Thanks for the advice! @RpgGamer and @obfuscator, thank you and I agree, ha! :) @Boris500, well first of how dare u @Ring_World, I can't pull off the smug/arrogant thing. I'll try and get a more casual photo one of these times though. It's just I literally dress like pictured all the time, unless I'm exercising, lol.

Thank you! :D I got very lucky. I was able to receive the help I need at the right time (SSDI, great health insurance [Medicare + Medicaid], therapy, and medication management). It's taken a couple years but I'm getting there. Also I have an awesome brother whose been there for me through the thick and thin.

Okay with the help of a friend I got a few good or decent photos (in my opinion at least). Which of these three is the best? Or are none of them good? I'll be using one of these for Tinder. I still have to get a few more... [hide] [/hide] (I like #1 the best, imo.) Also for the bio I've been thinking of something like: I think the hook is pretty good. (During a thunderstorm, there was a static discharge that lit up some dust near a window and it floated towards me and gave me a small shock, lol.) I'd like to elaborate a bit on my hobbies but I'm not sure how to in like a sentence or two. The joke made me laugh when I came up with it it. (Then again, I came up with this joke: A blue shell, a lightning bolt, and a starman walk into a bar. The bartender exclaims, "What is this, the last lap?") I personally like the last one (The Love Song of Alfred J Prufrock is hilarious), but it may be off putting, I can't be certain. (Think Bill Cosby...)

I'm actually doing it. God damn 3D modeling is hard. Btw, I went to the bar again on Friday (the place I was going to have my birthday dinner closed [like, permanently, lol] so I spent the dinner money on an Uber and some drinks) and got hit on. Felt good. I didn't find the guy particularly attractive though (he was handsome, but not my type, plus he was a bit of a downer). Always another day... Going to get some pictures for Tinder soon anyway. Will get feedback from the relationship advice thread when I do that! I've never posted an uncensored picture of myself here so that'll be a bit different.

Speaking of phones, the clock on my old phone (iPhone 5C) just stopped working (it first gave slow times, then random times, then it was perpetually Feb 18 2018 at 9:04 PM). This caused a lot of apps to break, including iMessage. I don't like Android very much so I went with an iPhone 7. I love it so far. I've never had a good phone... The lack of a headphone port doesn't bother me too much so far, but I don't use my phone to listen to music anyway. edit: I moved my Windows to a bigger SSD (it was on a 128 GB one and after Unreal Engine / Visual Studio / etc I ran out of space). I thought it would take half an hour but it took nearly three times as long... Booted into FreeBSD and used dd to transfer the disk image from my old SSD to my new one, then deleted the system reserve partition at the end. Swapped out the disks internally and spent half an hour fixing my BIOS settings (my BIOS resets itself after installing new hardware, idgi). FreeBSD wouldn't boot, so after trial and error, found I had to disable Secure Boot (why is that enabled by default) and enable VT-D. Now everything works.

No one showed up besides the instructor and me.

I went to the first Game Developer Club meeting at my school. Attendance was a whopping me, myself, and I. Lol. At least I learned about the ECGC (games dev conference). I'm gonna be putting in a request for two days off now... It's in April.

No that was yesterday

Ok this is pretty cool. Inventory system works...

I went to a bar for the first time. There's no gay bars near me, but it's an LGBT+ friendly bar. I didn't get any drinks but it was pretty cool. The bartender didn't charge me for the Shirley Temple and club soda, so I made a generous tip. Talked to a lesbian couple for a while, they showed me how to play pool (never played it before, lol). Talked to a few others (it wasn't very busy). There was this adorable guy but he was drunk AF and probably not gay so I didn't even think about flirting. Someone suggested I use Tindr. Going to look into it... What are the requirements, other than a Facebook account? Isn't there some minimum friend requirement? Also made two friends so far. One from school and one from work. The one from school made me realize I should be a bit more open about my sexuality, which is cool.

Lol I made a Facebook account.

Unreal is pretty cool... The artifacts make it look a little bad, so here's a still: